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“We have a responsibility to produce maps for our citizens that do not contain unconstitutional racial gerrymanders,” DeSantis said later in a statement. “Today, I vetoed a map that violates the US Constitution, but that does not absolve the Legislature from doing its job.”
Lawmakers approving a new map during a mid-April special session — just two months before candidates are supposed to qualify for the ballot — could give the GOP additional pick up opportunities as redistricting comes to a close across the nation.
Republican legislative leaders—who had previously tried to assuage the governor by revamping their initial proposals, giving him substantial legislative victories and funding his budget objectives—insisted they would try to find a workable compromise during the four-day session that starts April 19.
“Our goal is for Florida to have a new congressional map passed by the Legislature, signed by the governor and upheld by the court if challenged,” House Speaker Chris Sprowls and Senate President Wilton Simpson said in a joint statement. “Therefore, it is incumbent upon us to exhaust every effort in pursuit of a legislative solution.”
During the 2022 legislative session, lawmakers were handling the redistricting process in a relatively smooth way until DeSantis in January proposed his own maps that called for dismantling two seats now held by Black Democrats, including Rep. Al Lawson‘s.
Florida picked up one congressional seat in 2022 due to population growth for a total of 28. Republicans hold a 16 to 11 edge and DeSantis’ initial proposal would give Republicans a bigger advantage, boosting the number of seats Donald Trump would have won in 2020 to 18.
DeSantis acknowledged that he wants to avoid having the state’s congressional map imposed by the courts. Lawsuits have already been filed in both federal and state courts asking judges to take over the redistricting process because the governor and Legislature have been in a standoff.
“You are not going to have it drawn by a court,” DeSantis told reporters on Tuesday. “I think we all agree we have to work through this.”
The governor has taken clear aim at the seat held by Lawson, a Black Democrat from Tallahassee. Lawson’s North Florida district traverses roughly 200 miles and connects minority neighborhoods in Jacksonville with those in the state capital and in neighboring Gadsden County, the state’s only majority Black county.
Ryan Newman, the governor’s general counsel, contends that Lawson’s existing district — Florida’s 5th — runs afoul of federal law, including the equal protection clause of the 14th amendment, and is contrary to recent Supreme Court rulings that say race cannot be a predominant factor unless it serves a “compelling interest.”
Lawson, in a statement, blasted the governor’s veto and his legal reasoning: “In January, DeSantis made it clear that his ultimate objective was to cut the number of African Americans and Hispanic Americans serving in Congress, so today’s veto is no surprise. The fact that DeSantis justifies his goal to create racial disparities in congressional representation by citing the constitutional amendment created following the Civil War for the very purpose of remedying those same disparities is absurd and will be soundly rejected by any credible judge.”
Democratic legislators called DeSantis’ actions a waste of money and even “racist.”
“The map Governor DeSantis wants us to give him isn’t legal or appropriate, and it’s important that everyone understands that,” Rep. Joe Geller (D-Aventura) said. “I don’t know what will happen in April, but we will not sit quietly as Black voters are robbed of their ability to elect their own voice in Congress.”
The Florida Senate voted for a map in January that would have kept Republicans at 16 seats. DeSantis then asked the state Supreme Court to weigh in on whether Lawson’s seat was constitutional. The court declined the governor’s request, but DeSantis continued his threats to veto any map that kept Lawson’s seat intact.
In response, the House drew a new proposal that wiped out Lawson’s seat and instead replaced it with one confined to Jacksonville that House Republicans say should still guarantee the election of a Black candidate. House Republicans said they drew up the revised proposal to address the “novel legal theory” advanced by the governor. They also created an escape hatch of sorts by proposing a second map that kept Lawson’s seat intact in case the first map was rejected by the courts.
But DeSantis didn’t agree with this approach either and his top lawyer in his analysis said it created a “bizarre donut shape” for a neighboring district.
DeSantis said the map he vetoed was drawn in order to meet the voter approved Fair Districts standards that says the state cannot “diminish” the ability of minority voters to elect their preferred candidate. But he says that state standard cannot apply to what are known as “minority access” districts without violating federal law.
He added that, while he expects a legal challenge regardless of the outcome, “we are not trying to plot any kind of litigation strategy” that could result in Fair Districts being struck down. Voters in 2010 approved the anti-gerrymandering standards that also states that districts cannot be drawn to favor any political party or incumbent.
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